Today I feel like complete ass. Head cold, tired, plugged up and runny at the same time. You know, The Goomba.

I felt it coming on Friday. But the cold didn’t bother me too much then. I was at work till about 8:30 Friday night due to computer malfunctions in the morning. So after work, I went to the local 7-11, got a gas station burrito. Went home and ate said burrito, then quickly fell asleep. No time to deal with colds.

I woke up early on Saturday and headed up in to the mountains as soon as I could. I met Leber and his wife at Winter Park for a day of skiing. It was another perfect spring ski day and the conditions were great. Tons of sunshine and not enough sunscreen. No burn fortunately. The snow was hard in the morning and slushed up real nice by about noon. It was a hard day though because Leber’s lady wanted to ski the bumps all day. Were not sure what got into her but she was tearing it up. We stopped at the bar afterwards to wind down and drink a few beers. We then headed to their condo in Granby. After relaxing and cleaning up a little, Lebers father in law took us all out to dinner and Deno’s Mountain Bistro were I had an absolutely terrible Chicken Cordon Bleu (however, I’ve eaten here before and had some great meals so all is not yet lost for this place). Afterward we went back to Leber’s and watched Shcool Of Rock which was surprisingly enjoyable. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to handle two hours of Jack Black but it all turned out ok because the movie was only an hour and forty eight minutes long.

On Sunday I woke up early and drove back into Denver. When I got home it was time for me to pick up my brother and head over to my dad’s. From my dad’s we went to “cousin” Liz’s. Liz isn’t really my cousin but everyone in my family calls her that. However, we went over there to visit my actual cousin Kim and her kiddies. They were taking a break in town while moving from washington to oklahoma. Most of the time we went to the park and played with Kim’s 6 yr old, Owie, and 2 year old, Piece. It was tons of fun. I haven’t spent a spring day playing in the park in a real long time.

After visiting with Kim for a few hours we all went to dinner at Jax Fish House witch was wonderful despite having to cancel our order of oysters.

It was a really nice weekend filled with friends, family, food, sport and play. And it made me sick.

The weekend seemed to fly by for some reason. I left work immediately on Friday. I went home and fixed dinner and started to make plans. I met my brother and Pandy up at the Boulder Theatre for the Hemophiliac show. It was really good, everything I had expected from Zorn and Patton: weird, loud, unpredictable, and very noisy. It was a special show cause there isn’t much of a chance for anyone to hear them. Their album was a one off that only had a pressing of 2,500 copies and the are only playing a small handful of gigs in the U.S. The Knitting Factory is just another reason I want to visit NYC. I tried to record some on my cell phone but it came out real crappy. I did get a few snaps though.

After the show I flew back down to Denver and over to the Rod’s house. A bunch of people were there to see Father Jones off to Atlanta. I was a good night but me and Father Jones and Rod got into a big argument about this gay marriage thing. Thankfully Rod was on my side. Father Jones was against it, and the worst part was he was hiding behind the argument that activists, local municipalities and the court system were demeaning democratic system by bringing the issue forward by breaking the laws. I argued that this is how nearly all civil rights issues are have been fought historically. He finally just admitted that he didn’t want gays to marry. This was a disappointment. Though much of my relationship with Father Jones was is based on differing views, respect towards each others politics, and healthy debate, I couldn’t help but have this argument spoil the evening just a bit. I only wish it could have been a little more lighthearted. Oh well, I’ll miss you Father Jones.

I slept in on Saturday cause I didn’t make it home till around 2:30 am. On Saturday I spent much of the day going to the grocery store, running errands and napping. In the evening I headed over to my pop’s house. We went out to dinner to at Johnny Carino’s. I got the Wild Mushroom raviolis that were pretty good but I wasn’t that hungry cause I had been snacking all afternoon. Afterward we went back to my dad’s house and played a few games of chicken foot.

I slept in again on Sunday cause it took me along time to get back from my dad’s due to snow and forgetting my cell phone and having to go all the way back to get it. I spent much of Sunday in the office which pretty much sucked, but mostly because I had a hard time concentrating on work. I also watched The Matrix Reloaded which pretty much sucked as bad as working on a Sunday, just in a different way. I mean what was of with the lame ass primitive rave scene spliced in with Neo having sex in a pizza oven. Terrible.

Lets try and get it right the first time. I wanna talk about how Things have been slow for me the past few weeks. It’s been really nice actually. The last dance is over and the lights are on. I’ve spent a little time watching the American Idol tryouts, which is really the only part of that show I can stand. Once the Hollywood pageantry kicks in and the participants are actually trying, it gets rather dull.

On Wednesday I went out to the haunt for dinner and a couple of beers. It’s nice because the bar tender there has finally started buying me drinks. The last couple times I’ve been in he has taken half the drinks off my tab. My heavy tipping is finally starting to pay off.

I watched Friends & Lovers last night while doing laundry. It basically sucked. There was so much formula involved that any sort of originality it may have had was lost. I was left wholly unsatisfied by the compulsory crazy german, the gratuitous flashing, the cry-me-a-river cat and the cradle storyline. The more I think about it the more it sucked. I don’t know if I laughed once. OK maybe once.

I went out to dinner with my Dad on Tuesday after his meeting. We went to our usual Tommy’s Thai for dinner. He’s worried about some things. At one point he asked me how my love life was. I told him it was nonexistent. He asked me why, aren’t Jami and I talking anymore? I said we were, in fact I just got a nice present from her the other week, but were so far away that my “love life” is nonexistent. He then went on to tell me that I could try out the internet dating thing, or hurry dating. He only wants the best for me. And I love him for that.

There are so many fucking brilliant people out there with so many fucking brilliant ideas. I want my brain cells back. I need to get out more. I need to come up with something. I’m consuming excessively more than I’m creating. It makes me feel unacceptable.

On Saturday I picked up my brother and Pandy and we headed up into the mountains. We reached Copper Mountain at about 11:00 and skied till about 3:30. I was a beautiful, 15 spf, cloudless, electricbluesky day. The snow got a little hard towards the end of the day when everything cooled off but overall it was a great day. We spent most of the day doing cruisers as Pandy has only been skiing around five times but she loves it.

We then headed over the pass deeper into the rockies to Vail. We met my mom at her condo then freshened up and headed into town. Vail was really pretty with all of there xmas lights up yet and it was real nostalgic for me as I used to go up there every year with the family and spend time with my grandparents. It was weird how many absolutely beautiful people there were in that town. It was like hollywood, with more furs coats. There wasn’t an ugly person in the entire place. It sickened and delighted all of us. We ate some mexican and drank margaritas and people watched at Los Amigos (menu).

On Sunday we went skiing on vail mountain. My mom hadn’t been skiing in about 15 years, I hadn’t skied with my brother for probably about 13 years, and I’d never skied with Pandy, so it made for a really enjoyable day. Not to mention it snowed all day long and we got about 6-8 inches of powder to ski in all day. So when my brother and me split off from the girls to go skiing the bowls, we had a blast. Visibility was terrible, however, and we both got frightened a bit when we first entered the backside cause it was whiteout conditions and we were very unfamiliar with the terrain (at one point we almost skied over a cliff). There was no way to gauge distance in the blowing snow so it was hard to if I could see 20 feet in front of me or 80 feet. We ran into some snowboarders who wanted to ski with us for safety reasons. We ran into another group of three skiers and chatted with them when we heard somebody yelling for help somewhere back in the snow beyond sight. Luckily one of the other guys had a radio and was able to call for help. The weather cleared up after about an hour and made for a great powder ski day though. Driving home sucked, however, and I wasn’t back at my apartment till 8:30 on Sunday, exhausted from two days of skiing and a three-hour drive. What a great weekend.

I started out my xmas holiday on Tuesday night with a trip to the local haunt. It was both satisfying and disappointing as usual. Do you feel like you are getting to know me yet?

Wednesday I took the day off work. I slept in and listened to the bells ring in from the church next door. I wrapped presents and took care of a few errands and then headed over to my dads to spend christmas eve (day). They had a bunch of friends over, most of whom I didn’t know that well. My soon to be stepsister was there with her husband. I kind of knew her cause I went to high school with her. Also and old friend from new york showed up. I ate tons of cocktail shrimp and had a generally mellow evening and watched my brother and Pandy get drunk and try to hide it. My brother was the only one brave enough to try and rock the boat a little by talking politics and blaming all the problems in the middle east on the old people in the room selling weapons to Iraq in the early eighties. Everyone was so new to each other that things were exceptionally civil for a family holiday.

On Christmas morning we exchanged gifts with my father and had breakfast. The exchanging of gifts remains to this day the most enjoyable holiday tradition in my opinion. Tragically, a large apartment complex a block from my dads new house burnt down while we played poker. I won a dollar. Then we went over to my mom’s for Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts. I spent the day playing records on my new player my mom gave me. I decided to stay the night at my mom’s and drink lots of beer and smoke lots of cigarettes and bask in the warm glow provided the twinkly tree light nostalgia of Christmas spent in my childhood home. My mom and me stayed up till 3 in the morning talking about friends and mistakes and love and lessons and life.

It was a wonderful Christmas. Somehow I’m always surprised and thrilled by the great family I have.

I guess it’s only been a few days since I’ve written but it seems like forever. I’ve been swamped at work but my deadline just passed 20 minutes ago. I pretty much got everything done on time. On Tuesday I took a three-hour beer lunch with Sabrina. Her birthday was on Monday. She’s been skipping work all week and called once more today to see if we could do it again. Unfortunately, I had already eaten a couple of bowls of chili somebody brought into my office and had a deadline looming at the end of the day. It was good to see her again though. It had been a few months and I think we both forgot how similar we are and how well we get along. I disclosed some of what’s been happing with me lately although I must admit it recently hasn’t been much. After lunch Jami called and I spent an hour of work just chattin it up with her. It seemed like a long time since I’ve talked to Jami too so it was a nice afternoon. Unfortunately all my gabbing meant I stayed at the office till about 9:00 PM.

Last night I went over to my dad’s new house, which he just recently bought with his fiancé, with my brother and Pandy. The new place is huge. And nice in a very suburban sort of way. Definitely not my style, but fits him to a tee. It’s also kinda far away. Well, it’s farther away than his old house. We had a big dinner over there, decorated the christmas tree, and hung up lights. His fiancé is getting more used us and beginning to come out of her shell a little bit. We were cracking jokes all night about hanging my blue balls on the christmas tree, how the angel stays on top, and fiberoptics. I think this loosened her up a bit. Anyway, it was a great time. It’s been kind of nice cause I’ve been so busy recently that the holiday season has been flying by without me getting a chance to reflect on how depressing it can all be.

I got a call yesterday from my pops. We were going to go have a look at his new house. He said he had the garage door opener and we could probably sneak through the back door to have a snoop around. I told him I’m gonna opt out till he actually has a key to the place. He laughed and said that was understandable. Then he announced he was getting married. He said he didn’t want to tell me over the phone but he couldn’t wait. I’m really excited for him. He said they are thinking of setting a date for sometime in spring. It’s been, I don’t know, four, maybe five years since the divorce. Not that it matters how long it’s been really. I’m just glad he’s happy. She’s a wonderful woman and they’ve known each other for a long time. They are both fantastic and loving people. Very deserving of each other. Congratulations pops!

The last few days have been really relaxing. I know later on I’m gonna look back on this long, four day weekend and say to myself, “Damn, I could have spent those four days off way better than that now. I’d kill people for four days off in a row right now.” But regardless this is how I have spent them. Yesterday I slept in till around 10:00. I woke up in my brother’s bed. This was cause I stayed at my mom’s house overnight on Thanksgiving. This is cause I was too tired to drive home after eating a large meal of pasta with white sauce and shrimp, spinach soaked in melted butter and vinegar, garlic bread, and salad and then watching Waking Life. Waking Life is a real philosophical movie done with a really unique animation. This movie was originally filmed using real people and sets, then different artists animate the scenes by “drawing” over the top of them. It was really pretty interesting but the philosophy was sometimes hard to swallow. It was just me and my mom on Thanksgiving. In the next couple of weeks we’ll go down to my grandmas for a full on turkey dinner cause my brother and Pandy are in Hawaii. We celebrate our holidays on our own terms.

On Friday I spent the afternoon surfing the internet on my moms computer, talking on the phone with Jami, and watching Anger Management. I didn’t do hardly anything in the evening and again went to bed early. It makes me wonder if I may have caught something that might be wearing me down. When I got up this morning I went to my local coffee shop and spent a couple hours reading. Then I went to pick up my developed film and shop for digital cameras. I think I have set a price range and have a few ideas of what I want now. I IM’d with Cati a little bit this afternoon. I’m at work now cause I’m trying to get ahead for a big deadline I have in the next couple of weeks. Still no plans for the remainder of the weekend either. Sigh.

I want to stop telling the trivial, but I don’t want to stop the telling. This is becoming increasingly difficult.

I need to get a move on. It starts tonight. I’m really gonna get shit done. No really.

On Friday I went out to a local bar because I had some tokens for free beer and I was just gonna sit at the bar for an hour and write my toast for Lebers wedding. I got a bit written then started talking to this guy who sat down next to me. He got sacked that day and was looking to get drunk and yell at whoever would listen. He was a pretty funny guy though and was entertaining for a while. We played foosball untill he got so drunk I wasn’t able to understand him any longer. I then sat at the bar for an hour while this girl used me to keep other guys from hitting her. I’m as sexually threatening as your grandma. I also got a late night phone call that made my head swim in warm fuzzys and knotted my sheets with reeling.

I woke up early on Saturday and went over to A.P.’s. We fixed early morning bloody mary’s and waited for some other friends to show up. I never ate dinner on Friday so I never really sobered up. We then went and played in the BDA tournament. I played all right. Much better than last time. I really think a good buzz and a scramble does wonders for my game. After the tournament we sat around and drank beer for a while. I took a quick nap when i got home and then went to my local bar and drank red bull and vodkas and chatted up whoever happened to sit down next to me.

I slept in on Sunday and laid on the couch, a complete puddle of goo from the last two days. A little sunburnt and really thirsty. Then I went of to pick up my brother and his girl and we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and picked up a couple gifts for my mom. We gave her a yoga carrying case and a bath kit. I didn’t think that either of the presents were all that great but she got real excited about them. I think she’ll like the earrings best. We had shish kabobs that turned out delish. We also watched About Scmidt which I don’t think I liked but kinda did in a weird way, every character was somehow acutely pathetic and only semi-likable. I need to watch it again and pay more attention to it. Happy 56th Mother Figure.

I’m back from my road trip/vacation/camping trip/concert/wedding extravaganza. OK well i just old you eveything I did but if you want some more details read below (times are approximate).
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The weekend officially started off over at my Bro’s new apartment. My family, (both parents even), the Bros Girlfriends mom (one of the best Gumbo chefs I know), Trouts family, and various other friends got all got together to party. The function of the party was three-fold - as a housewarming for my bro and his girlfriend, as chance for everyone to get to meet each other and to eat some of the best gumbo west of the Mississippi. In addition to the great company and excellent food, the evening included babies, dancing, beer, wine, gin & juice, drawing, impromptu jam sessions on pots, pans, air guitars, real guitars, vocal chords and any other instrument that could be found or invented, and tons of laughter. After the party was we all went to the bar. This was probably not a good idea. Some of us were not allowed in the bar for various reasons - those of us that made it were kicked out in less than 15 minutes. Apparently the owner/manager of The Park doesn’t take kindly to grown men dawning some of their girlfriends accessories and acting like they are picking up on him. Getting kicked out was totally worth seeing that grumpy old mans reaction though.
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